Two Paulding residents are spreading the love of foster care and their Christian faith by helping establish a ministry at their church.

Dallas residents Courtney and Emory Lott have two biological children, two children they adopted privately and two children they fostered before adopting, said Courtney Lott.

Over the years the family has fostered three boys, she said.

“We feel like it is a Biblical command for us,” Courtney Lott said.

She said she and her husband believe the Bible depicts the command in James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world, [New International Version].”

Emory Lott said this is an opportunity for them to work for God.

“We can pour into the kids while we have them in our foster families,” he said.

They also want to minister to the parents of the children whom they foster, he said.

The Lotts told their story about fostering through FaithBridge Foster Care; a faith based foster care organization, at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs, where they attend

They launched the ministry two weeks ago, and already had 33 members attend their first meeting, Mrs. Lott said.

“Our prayer is the church will see the need,” she said.

FaithBridge is the fostering organization the church is using for the ministry. The Lotts fostered their children through FaithBridge before adopting them. The organization focuses on recruiting families, making sure there is a support system for the fostering families and quality of a permanent home, said Bill Hancock, president and founder of FaithBridge based in Alpharetta.

“Never have we had enough families on any given day to provide a safe and stable home [for all foster children],” he said.

Hancock said he believes appealing to church members to become foster parents is the answer for this problem.

“There is a natural community group in the local churches,” he said.

FaithBridge, along with the Lotts, will be training leaders in the church to prepare to foster children, and be a support group for the families.

I love the idea of more church involvement when it comes to foster care! It can be scary to depend on the government to meet the needs of the kids and families. I love the idea of educating our community churches about the need of more foster care!

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